Best Place to Buy Film Books

October 19, 2016

New York’s bookstores used to be a film nerd’s dream: From the eye-popping selection at Applause Books to the great vintage titles at Gotham Book Mart to the heavy-duty academic tomes at Coliseum Books, the city’s literary shops were an endless source of discovery. Those places are gone now, but the Strand still stocks a truly impressive array of film books, most of them used — ranging from oversize coffee-table books to scholarly monographs to biographies and historical texts, most priced fairly reasonably. The store’s Film and Theater section is also relatively well-organized, which is a welcome development; in the past, this part of the Strand used to be pure chaos. Over the years, as most film writing has migrated to the internet and the publishing industry in general has undergone upheaval, interest in film books has waned. But to anyone with a serious interest in movies, their meaning, and their history, access to such books — old and new — remains of vital importance. The Strand continues to fill that need. Bilge Ebiri